Grow Your Intelligence

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Transcript of Grow Your Intelligence

Grow Your Intelligence New research shows that the brain is more like a muscle; it changes and gets stronger when we use it. You know that when you lift weights, your muscles get bigger and you get stronger. If you only practice lifting 20 pounds, you won't be strong enough to lift 100 pounds. But most people don’t know that when they practice and learn new things, parts of their BRAIN change and get larger, a lot like muscles do. but wait!

grab your pencil Switch your pencil to the OTHER HAND Time to reflect How did it feel to write with your opposite hand? What would you need to do if you wanted to be able to lift 100 pounds? To get stronger, you need to lift heavier weights. Heavy weights = HARD WORK. A group of people learned to juggle and practiced for 3 months. The researchers took pictures of the jugglers' brains before and after practicing. How did it feel to write with your opposite hand AFTER 5 minutes of practice? What you need: pencil and paperWhat you will do:Copy a sentence on the screen onto your paperDo not start until I say "GO!" Time to grow your brain! Write this sentence with your opposite hand: Take 5 minutes to practice The Juggling Experiment Researchers wanted to see if they could SEE a change in people's brains when they learned something new.

They decided to teach people to juggle. Time to think Think of an activity you learned to do well. List 2 things you did to become better at this activity But the hard work will be worth it because you'll feel yourself get STRONGER. You might think about quitting. When you learn new things...

...your brain grows! This is a cell in your brain, called a neuron. This is a dendrite

Dendrites send messages to other parts of your brain. Think of dendrites as roads. Growing dendrites = Learning The more roads you build, the easier it is to travel from one place to another. The more we learn and practice, the more growth there is. The more dendrites our brain grows, the easier it is for ideas to move around in your head. Remember when you were little, when you first learned how to recite the alphabet? At first, you did not know how the letters looked like, but by just reciting them a neuron started to grow dendrites. More dendrites kept growing as you learned what the letters look like and what sounds they represent. Next you learned how to form words and read short sentences. By the time you learned how to read with fluency this neuron became full of dendrites. CAT IN THE HAT Your brain grows with...

...practice over time

and difficult tasks They discovered that new parts of the brain grew! Your brain grows with practice over time difficult tasks Math is easy! Scientists have found that the brain grows more when you learn something new, and grows less when you practice things you already know. For example, strengthening the “math” part of your brain usually happens when you try hard on challenging math problems. Few people improve in math by doing the same set of easy problems and skipping the hard ones. Everyone can become smarter at math if they practice it in the right way. Sometimes practice can be DIFFICULT, but it gets easier with more PRACTICE OVER TIME. Now think of something you WANT TO LEARN to do. List 2 things you need to do to achieve your goal. Time to juggle!